it's all about the birds

small fields of forget me nots in my garden

I'm up a bit early this morning. 4:30 instead of my usual 5:00 am. Miss Dixon needed to go out. I stood in the sun porch door waiting for her and listening ... the sounds of our early morning - the steady stream of lobster boats leaving the harbour, the song birds and crows beginning to stir, and my coffee maker gurgling and sputtering in the kitchen. Another brand new day is beginning and I'm always thankful for a brand new day.



Yesterday afternoon as Winnie and I walked down the red clay cottage lane, that runs between two meadows, on our walk to the lighthouse I notice that the Bobolinks are back. The green, green meadows are dotted with yellow and purple wildflowers and these handsome black, white and yellow birds sit atop spikes of wild grass and their chatter and song, is a new sound added to our afternoon walks.

It seems all the summer birds have returned and added they're joyful spirits to our landscape. Bobolinks, the Red Winged Black Birds sit perched up on the tips of bull rushes in the marshy area, behind the grassy lane and where the peepers live. They're song much like high powered electrical wires or that hot, buzzing, heat sound of cicadas at the height of summer, the Barn Swallows who flit across pastures in giant graceful swoops (and who set up their homes in perfect little houses my friend Carol lovingly puts up around her yard each spring), Cliff Swallows who live in little perfectly round tiny caves dug into the tops of our small red clay cliffs and the Kingfishers who call out loudly as they zoom a few feet above the surface of the water like miniature fighter jets.

The bird feeders outside my kitchen window light up with the tiny bright yellow bodies of Gold Finches and the red, red feathers of Purple Finches. Daily these feeders are a flurry of Finches, Chickadees, an assortment of Sparrows, Red Polls, Red Breasted Grosbeaks, Mourning Doves, the shiny iridescent blue black bodies of Grackles and occasionally a flock of yellow Evening Grosbeaks arrive for a picnic. Regular visitors to my large yard and forest also include Juncos, Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers (the larger of the two), Vireos (easily noticed because of their penchant to climb branches upside down) and the handsome and co-operative flocks of Cedar Waxwings. I've also had occasional rare visitors like my beautiful Lady Baltimore Oriole, an American Red Start and a small hunting Sharp Shinned Hawk. eek !

I want to set up another pair of feeders in my back garden, the kitchen feeders are really there for the viewing pleasure of kittens Gussie & Oliver (my inside cats). In my back garden, just at the edge of my wee forest, I like to have feeders hanging from the trees and a large dish of water (both for bathing and drinking) which I change daily as it's often used through the night by the raccoons to wash their sweet little hands. And then I will sit in the early evenings, a big glass of lemony ice tea on the arm of my chair, miniature binoculars around my neck and Miss Dixon keeping me company - in a trance like, oh so relaxing meditative, bird watching state. Big happy sigh.

Nature is truly grand and my own tangled gardens are lush and green and blooming everywhere ... I am very grateful that I am surrounded by such wonder each and every day.




the most perfect tiny flower